Destiny’s Child Fans Defending One of Their Hits From Being Canceled Nearly 20 Years Later

The classic Destiny’s Child song “Cater 2 U” is getting a second look by fans who think the lyrics are problematic. The 2005 song, which features Beyonce, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams singing about women wanting to serve their love interests, started trending on Twitter after people started calling out the song as perpetuating an unhealthy and uneven relationship dynamic.

The song includes lyrics like, “My life would be purposeless without you,” and “Let me help you/Take off your shoes/Untie your shoe strings/Take off your cufflinks/What you wanna eat, boo?/Let me feed you/Let me run your bathwater/Whatever you desire, I’ll supply ya.” But while some people were ready to write the song off as sexist and outdated, there were plenty of Destiny’s Child fans ready to defend it.

Even Williams weighed in, sharing a video as a cartoon character named Marleen: “My name is Marleen, and I just read y’all wanna cancel ‘Cater 2 U’ by Destiny’s Child,” she said in the playful video. “Oh, honey, you didn’t deserve who you were catering to, and you gave your pearls to swine. Don’t be mad at Destiny’s Child uh uh.” Keep scrolling to see the discussion play out on Twitter.

‘One of My Fav Songs’

One of the most popular tweets about the issue came from a user who said that instead of “canceling” “Cater 2 U,” people should cancel “catering to the wrong one” in relationships.

Defending Michelle

Others defended the song purely for Williams’ verse in it, in which the singer croons, “I wanna give you my breath, my strength, my will to you/That’s the least I can do/Let me cater to you/Through the good, the bad/The ups and the downs/I’ll still be here for you.”

The Memes Roll In

Once the discourse kicked off, the memes started rolling in, with people joking that the “feminism [leaves their] body” when the bop begins to play and others preparing to argue in internet court for its validity. 

Gen Z Gets Blamed

Many millennial and Gen X listeners blamed Gen Z for the discourse, calling the younger generation “too sensitive” for what they thought was them getting offended by the song.

All the Way Back

Still others were confused why a song that came out in 2005 was even becoming the topic of conversation so many years later. 

Joking

People who had seen the commentary evolve from the start pointed out that the initial comments about “Cater 2 U” appeared to be made in a joking way, making the backlash towards them comical in and of itself.

Is This Actually Happening?

Many Destiny’s Child fans added that they had seen more tweets about the backlash to “canceling” the song than they saw people actually wanting to cancel it, leading them to wonder if there actually was anything happening or another internet joke getting blown out of proportion.